If we are to believe what Priceonomics have to say, then, our phone loses its value pretty quickly, lest we have an iPhone.

According to their research, iPhones have the best resale value, while Android devices’ resale value is almost similar to BlackBerrys and is reasonably low. This means that second-hand iPhones are valued more than their equi-priced siblings from Android or BlackBerry stable after a while of their initial purchase.

An 18 month old iPhone still holds 53% of its original value versus a droid which holds 42% and Blackberry, 41%. A slightly more precise analysis reveals, if you buy an iPhone, you can sell it for $13.20 less for each month you own it. BlackBerrys and Androids on the other hand loose close to 40%.

According to the website, cell phones don’t depreciate linearly over time. Most of their value is lost right after you have made a brand new purchase and the rest depreciates gradually. But at any point of time, iPhone retains more of its original value than Android and BlackBerry phones. Even four years later, you can sell a first generation iPhone for close to $110 dollars.

The site also enlists a few money saving tips and for minimizing your total expense when buying a phone and selling it after a while.

[VIA]

“What it would take to make iPhones in United States?”  and “Why can’t that work come home?”  were the question President Barack Obama asked Steve Jobs in Feb. 11, 2011 during a during a dinner with Silicon Valley’s top players  and Steve Job’s answer was, “Those jobs aren’t coming back.

Call it a harsh reply , the i-reality for the American Mid Level Tech worker is even harsher.  Apple employees some 43,000 people in US and 20,000 overseas but generates another 700,000 jobs through suppliers primarily overseas comprising for advanced semi conductors in Germany and Taiwan , Memory from Korea and Japan , Panels and Cirsuits from Korea and Taiwan , chipsets from Europe and rare metals from Africa and China with their major assembly line in Shenzhen China and another in Brazil.

So why Apple loves China so much ?

Having the world’s largest population has it’s advantages , no matter how many and how skilled people you want there is always a supply of them available and Apple is making use of this abundance of human resource in China.

Take FoxConn. the world’s largest manufacturer of consumer electronics and supplier not only to Apple but also to Dell , HP , Motorola , Nintendo and even Nokia , Samsung and Sony producing some 40% of the world’s consumer electronics.

Foxconn employees half a million employees working six days a week for up to 12 hours with a  large proportion living living in company housing an earning just $17 a day , to guide the foot traffic , Foxconn has to employee 300 guards to keep things moving orderly.

Beside the massive human resource , Foxconn also employees 10,000 robots , which will increase to 300,000 in 2012 and a million by 2015 ( source- Time Magazine )

Replicate the same magnitude in Unites States and see the costs sky rocket due to housing , medical and other associated setup costs not to mention labor laws and Unions.

When Apple shifted their manufacturing to China , they thought they will require up 8700 industrial engineers to oversee the 200,000 workers, the US the process was estimated to take 9 months , in China it took just 15 days.

With this speed and flexibility China and abundance of resources,  China has proved to be an ideal manufacturing base for Apple where costs are low , talent is readily available and people are willing to meet any demands .

To Apple’s advantage , in China everything is manufactured is clusters and is found around the corner , you want any component large or small , chances are you will find the manufacturer within couple of blocks and if you want any changes in design , given the large enough orders of Apple , the changes can be made in least  possible time.

So much is the influx of China that another major supplier of Apple , Corning Glass , has shifted their major manufacturing base to Japan and Taiwan.

Now before you start shunning Apple that they have taken US jobs overseas .  Although the the manufacturing of iDevices has going abroad , Apple has retained their programming base in US alongwith   their $500 million data center in North Carolina, another crucial element being made in US is the processor manufactured by Samsung of South Korea employing 2400 workers in Austin -  TX.  In the services sector Apple has indirectly created tens and thousands of jobs in retail and courier industry .  FedEx and USPS  both admit that their have increased their personnel  in US due to increase in Apple shipments , meanwhile , as the tech jobs shrink , Apple create more direct and indirect opportunities for people to work at being beneficial for everyone be it in US or abroad.

[VIA]

Unleashed on the market in late 2010, it’s no secret the Nokia N8 has been the uncontested champ in terms of its photography credentials. Possessing the largest camera sensor of any mobile phone (and even some low-end dedicated cameras) at 1/1.83″, a xenon flash, and Carl Zeiss optics, few comparable devices over the past fifteen months are even in the same category of photographic quality. The competition is slowly beginning to gain ground, however, as witnessed by a review between the Nokia N8, Apple iPhone 4S, and the Samsung Galaxy SII’s camera capabilities.

Predictably, none of the devices performed poorly. While I don’t believe many of us will be surprised by which phone came out on top during the various tests, it’s always enjoyable to read detailed reviews with plenty of comparison photographs. I particularly liked the last series of shots consisting of the rather dull and lifeless tree; the amount of detail the N8 captures is absolutely amazing, especially considering it was released so many months ago.

Though other manufacturers are slowly catching up to the N8 in terms of photographic muscle in decent lighting conditions, until another device implements a proper xenon flash and aims to achieve accurate color representation, I believe they will continue to trail Nokia’s beast for the foreseeable future. Other platforms may have the advantage of being able to download a plethora of image manipulation and sharing applications, but when one’s main focus is to capture superb pictures, the Nokia N8 is hard to beat. Perhaps the upcoming Mobile World Congress can usher in some new imaging-centric devices that can finally best the N8?

VIA | Source

My fascination with electronics began nearly thirty years ago when my father bought me an Apple II. It was ostensibly for school but I knew better: Dad wanted to play games on it. And he did. Frequently. My uncle taught me how to do some rudimentary programming with it as well as some ‘fun’ stuff like having the same sentence scroll over the screen hundreds of times.

That was just the start of it, of course. It wasn’t long before we progressed along the evolutionary ladder of consumer gadgets from Sony’s Walkman to its CD Player to those chunky Nokia Cellphones of the 1980’s to numerous IBM PC clones and their various iterations of Windows to the Palm Pilot (my first PDA was a Palm V) to Sony Ericsson’s PDA-Phones (which preceded the iPhone by a good 5 years) to the iPod and finally today to iOS and Android devices.

All this navel-gazing was prompted by Apple’s latest earnings report. In the quarter ended December 31st, Cupertino earned an astounding $46.3Bn, took home around $13Bn of that and is now sitting on cash of close to $97Bn. Some medium-sized economies don’t have that much cash.

Apple has long had a reputation for being a maverick entity, with its insistence on doing things its way, its corporate omerta and especially the rabid loyalty it inspires among its customers. Nowhere was this more evident than in the veneration lavished on Steve Jobs upon his death.

I must confess that, until recently, I was baffled by all of this. My early experience with the Apple II notwithstanding, I’d been using a PC for the better part of 25 years and was always partial to Android. That started to change once I got an iPad 2, which lead to me getting a MacBook Pro which, in turn, prompted me to acquire an iPhone 4S.

I still have my PC and Android equipment and I still love using them – especially my Samsung Galaxy SII because I can customize the heck out of it — but having these Apple devices on-hand lets me see what others see: Apple is great because its designs are great.

By design, I’m going beyond the way Apple’s products look. We all know they look fantastic – the fact that so many other products on different platforms take their design cues from Apple products reinforces the fact. What sets its products apart is that they happen to work pretty well too: my two children, ages 4 and 6, didn’t need to be taught how to use the iPad – and if there’s something it can’t seem to do right now – well, there’s an app for that.

Also, Apple pays attention to detail: the reason I got a MacBook Pro in the first place was that it had all the design cues I was looking for – a glass screen, beautiful aluminum casing and back-lit keys. I couldn’t find that on any other device that wasn’t an outright clone of the MacBook Pro or had some obvious detail that suggested that the manufacturer was just fattening its margins.

Indeed, it seems that, for all this talk of what the next technological innovation will be, the people who buy these things – you know, the ones who contributed to Apple’s $97Bn horde — don’t really care what the processor is or how much RAM it has or the pixel density of its display. They want something that looks nice and works well – and are willing to pay for it.

That’s easy to say but difficult to execute; Apple’s earnings show that it can do this consistently. Others are copying that formula: the next iteration of Windows will bear a friendlier interface than that on Windows 7. As we saw during the CES, PC manufacturers of all stripes are launching Ultrabooks that are obvious homages to the MacBook Air that, by the way, turned four this year.

Apples earnings don’t mean that Apple has won the smartphone or tablet war. What it does suggest is that the next great thing in technology won’t necessarily be the fastest, most energy-efficient quad-core mobile processor or the largest, highest-resolution portable display.

That’s the simple message of Apple’s blowout earnings report: build beautiful things and make sure they work well.

Lets be honest the iPhone4s didn’t change anything. True it now has Siri but other than that it is the same as the iPhone4 with a quicker processor and “the best camera ever on a smartphone” (which still can’t hold a candle to my one year old N8′s camera.)   It still basically has the same tried old 2007  iOS with a few minor tweaks to make it a more mature OS but lets fact it, overall it’s still a 5 year old OS.   Apparently what truly has not changed is the fact that “if you advertise they will buy.”

Everyone being well informed tech folks here (lets face it if you are reading this you are a “well informed tech person”) we all know that iPhone is not the creme of the crop anymore when it comes to smartphones.  (Don’t get me wrong the iPhone is still a good smartphone it just not head and shoulders above the pack like it use to be. Recently it has been just keeping up pace with other smartphones.)

Well apparently no one has told the American People that yet.  According to AT&T latest press release, the iPhone made up approximately whopping EIGHTY PERCENT (or 7.6 million) of AT&T’s smartphone sales in the 4th Qtr.

I don’t know why but this number seems just astounding to me! Was it iPhone 3Gs owners upgrading to the iPhone 4s? Could the iPhone itself really be attracting new users?

I am guessing it’s 65 to 70 percent upgrades and 30 to 35 percent new users. Every night no matter what show you watch during prime time there is as the wife calls it “the obligatory iPhone commercial” comes on, Where Apples ad writers (whatever they pay those guys it’s too little the commercials are genius) make you think that iPhone will print money and babysit your child for you and that no other phone in world has those apps.

While I am happy for Apple for figuring out the magical formula to get people to buy their phone, it saddens me that phone buying public in America is still so uninformed to believe the self made Apple hype.

Thoughts anyone?

VIA

Could Androids days be numbered?  HTC may be found guilty of patent infringement after a judge made an interpretation of Apple’s ’263 patent.

In an earlier minor victory by Apple over HTC’s Data Detectors patent, many questioned Apple’s ability to defend it’s patent disputes.  They haven’t been able to win any major victories of late making people wonder if all this were a futile waste of money.  Well detractors may now change their tune as this interpretation may lead to a victory aimed directly at the core of every Android device.  While a victory certainly wouldn’t lead to the end of Android, a hefty price may have to be paid if Apple were to license out their patent, similar to what Microsoft is dong currently.  Looks like the soap opera just got a little bit more interesting.

[VIA]

Are you a soccer fan? If yes, then the today’s free iOS game of the day is for you!

Flick Soccer! is an addictive arcade freekick game featuring:

* Full Fat Flick Controls mean everyone can play!
* Shoot for insane scores in Quickshot mode, it’s you vs the keeper.
* Take it to the limit in Endurance mode, set piece action with bonus items!
* Try out Challenge mode for the ultimate skill contest.
* Have you got the accuracy to hit the bar? Find out in Crossbar mode.
* Smash It! breaking glass panels against the clock.
* Unbelievably accurate flick controls for stunning top-corner shots.
* The most realistic goalkeeper on the App Store.
* Interactive defenders will jump and react to shots.
* Gorgeous Retina visuals and immersive sound.
* Game Center leaderboards and achievements.

This game is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad with iOS 3.1 or later.

Name: Flick Soccer! | Download from: iTunes | Price: Free for Limited Time

In the seemingly unending saga between Apple and Samsung, Apple’s latest, and fully expected complaints involve the Galaxy Nexus’ “Slide to Unlock” capability.

When Apple was awarded the patent for the ubiquitous unlocking mechanism, we predicted that it wouldn’t take long before Apple used it’s newly gain weapon for it’s litigious arsenal.  This is only the latest chapter in what seems like a really bad soap opera, where two tech giants, once great friends, resort to childish bickering and in-fighting.  Why the Galaxy Nexus specifically one might ask as it’s unlocking mechanism is decidedly different from those used in the past and which more closely resemble Apples method?  Is this an attempt to discredit Google’s latest and greatest version of Android, while at the same time targeting Samsung’s latest device?  One can only guess the motivation behind it, but at this point, it’s really getting old.  Do  you think Apple has a leg to stand on in this case?

iPhone 4S and iPad 2 owners rejoice!  Your patience will now be rewarded.  The untethered jailbreak for your device is now available.  Get it here. Check out the instructions and video after the break.

Jailbreak iPhone 4S

Jailbreak iPad2

How to Jailbreak the iPhone 4S or iPad 2 with Absinthe

Step 1: Download, extract, and run Absinthe from here.

Step 2: Connect your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 via USB.

Step 3: Click “Jailbreak” to run the Absinthe jailbreak. It will take a while on the beginning portion, and eventually your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 will look like it’s restoring a backup. It will say “Restoring in Progress”. This can be pretty lengthy. Don’t worry, it’s working. Don’t touch your device until completely finished!

Step 4: Once completed, unlock your iPhone if necessary, and you should see an Absinthe icon on the Home screen. You may have to search for it if you have a lot of app icons. Tap the Absinthe icon, and it should load the GreenPois0n site, and will then reboot your device. Once it loads back up, the Cydia icon will have replaced the Absinthe icon.

Step 5: Your iPhone 4S or iPad 2  is now  jailbroken! It took a while, but it was certainly worth the wait. Now all that’s left to do is load Cydia for the first time, and start downloading your favorite jailbreak apps and tweaks.

Some users are experiencing errors with a message saying “Error establishing Database Connection”.  Here’s what you do:

iOS hacker PlanetBeing who helped develop the jailbreak tweeted a simple fix for the “error establishing a database connection”. Apparently, all you need to do is go to Settings > Network > VPN > ON.

The VPN connection will most likely give an error and your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 should reboot shortly after. Once it’s rebooted, try launching the Absinthe webclip again.

That should do the trick.

[VIA]

Fireworks popping, lanterns glowing, red envelopes bursting with money – it’s Chinese New Year!

The Year of the Dragon update of Angry Birds Seasons has just been released.

For now, it’s only available at the Android Market but it should be available on the remaining platforms soon.

Update: Angry Birds Year of the has been also released for iOS. You can fint it here.